i heard clunking coming from the front end and couldnt figure it out. long story short the main piston shaft bolt was loose. (the bolt in the midde of the three strut mounting bolts at the top under the hood).

it wasnt loose like ready to fall off but no wheres near as tight as the other side. so now i go to tighten and the entire piston shaft spins and i cant hold it tight enuff without it spinning and i dont wanna put a wrench on there and bang it up or im screwed. i checked the stickes..nothing/ called auto zone and my buddy and they both told me to use an impact gun to take it off then put it on real quick, hoping it'll torque it down, but that didnt work. any other suggestions??

setup.. tockico illumina springs and struts

 

either a crazy impact wrench (the key here is finding one not only with high torque, but more importantly it's impacts per minute rating being faster than the average impact wrench), but you will have to find a way to hold the piston shaft someway...perhaps a cloth and vise grips or cloth and a C-clamp...

 

yea i gotta figure out to hold it, but long story short the clunking was due in part ot the upper strut mount being worn out. (the mount with the rubber bushing inside literally spererated from the metal mount causing the shock to move everywhere. i oredered a new one so hopefully that will fix all my problems.

 

the top of the strut shaft is D shaped. it's very likely that you rounded the bolt hole in the upper mount off so the shaft just spins in there. once you get the new mount on it, you should see the mating D shaped hole in the mount. this keeps the shaft from turning when you tighten the nut.

 

not on the 5th gens....IIRC hole is round...I remembered that from my 4th gen...thought it was stupid they didn't do it on the 5th gen...but it was apparently done according to this engineer I know to alleviate stress or premature wear out of upper strut bearings that plagued many 4th gens...not sure if that is accurate...can't see how it would help...

 

that's weird. I remember them being on the 5th gens I've worked on. :shrug:

 

You could get a strip of rubber[to prevent damage to the piston],wrap it around the piston,then use pair of channel locks to hold the rubber strip/piston in place while another person tightens the nut down..

 

actually matt come to think of it, I believe you are right...


why I remember what I did was with the progress/cattman coilovers, I had to bore out the top strut mount and get rid of that tiny piece of metal to get rid of that "D" shaped opening...since the strut rods for the progress are completely round...my mistake...

 

I just went through this, I bought my car with ~40k on it, when I just replaced the struts in my 4th gen, it had round holes up top. My AGX's had D-shaped tops, as well as the mounts I bought from phenyl1, so now they are D-shaped.

 

i cant visualize wut the he11 u guys are talking about but ill firgure it out when i return form vaca an dinstall the warn out parts.


thanks again gents




EDIT* im kinda ****ted and will be for the next few days... sorry for the inconvenience lol

 

The 4th gen fronts definitely have the D-shape but I'm not sure about the rears. So you need to put the front assembly back into the wheel well and screw the three strut tower nuts on loosely (don't have to reconnect the bottom at the knuckle). Then you can loosen the center nut very easily.